Pune : Uber auto driver molests, tries to rape woman techie; arrested
A horrifying incident unfolded in Pune as an autorickshaw driver was apprehended by the Wanowrie police for attempting to molest and rape an IT professional woman who had booked an Uber ride at 3:30 am to commute home from her office.
Bhausaheb Pathare, Senior Police Inspector of Wanowrie Police Station, recounted the incident to Pune Pulse. The victim, an IT professional, had hailed an Uber auto to travel from her workplace on Saswad Road to her residence in Handewadi.
The accused auto driver, identified as Aniket Munjal, deceitfully claimed that his mobile battery had died, preventing him from using the Uber app. He then coerced the woman into opening the app and providing him with as much money as she could after the ride commenced. The victim grew suspicious when she realized that the driver was taking her to a different location than the one she had initially selected for her drop-off.
Swiftly reacting to the situation, she immediately informed her husband and a friend about the alarming turn of events. In Hadapsar, near Little Flower School, the auto driver halted the rickshaw, sat next to the woman, molested her, and made an attempted rape. In a courageous act of self-defense, the victim bit off one of the driver’s fingers to protect herself. Subsequently, the driver apologized and promised to take her home. He then drove her to the railway gate at Kalepadal, near her residence. Recognizing her familiar surroundings, the woman bravely jumped out of the auto-rickshaw. Her husband, tracking her location through GPS, swiftly arrived at the scene in his car, and they began pursuing the fleeing auto-rickshaw. The pursuit concluded when the rickshaw overturned on a road, allowing the woman’s husband to apprehend Munjal and hand him over to the Wanowrie police.
As per Senior Police Inspector Pathare, the driver has been charged by the Wanowrie police with abduction, attempted rape, sexual harassment, and attempted disrobing of a woman.
